1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus used in the food industry. Specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for removing bread and other products from wrappings in which these products are packaged.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope thereof and additional fields in which the present invention would be of significant utility.
1. Description of the Related Art:
High grade edible bread crumbs are typically made from loaves of bread which were packaged in plastic or cellophane wrappers for sale in grocery stores. The bread is unwrapped and removed from the wrapping. Next, the bread is dried and milled.
In conventional bread crumb facilities, the loaves of bread are unwrapped by hand. Unfortunately, modern, highly efficient, high speed bread crumb facilities such as that owned and operated by the present assignee, Topnotch Foods, Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., can process up to 10,000 pounds of bread crumbs per hour. With one loaf of bread weighing approximately one pound this equates with a requirement to unwrap 10,000 loaves of bread per hour. With each employee being able to unwrap on the order of 100 loaves per hour, 100 employees would be needed to unwrap prepackaged bread to keep pace with the capacity of the facility.
As the labor costs associated with the unwrapping of large quantities of bread are substantial, a need has been recognized in the art for a technique for unwrapping prepackaged bread at a high speed.